Slow Burn
by Ookami-242
Summary: He was a destroyed hero, running away from everything he loved and hated. But THEY wouldn't give him up that easily. Not when he was their most powerful weapon. They said that nobody would help him. Maybe they were right. Or maybe...
1. They Exist

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Static Shock, or anything else that might show up in this fanfic. Okay, this is my…nineteenth try at finding a fanfic that I want to type. I JUST CANT FIND ONE. So, I'm gonna try this one. Who knows? Maybe it'll _work_ for me, and I wont run out of ideas. But one thing's for sure. You'll see a lot of super heroes in here…and a _lot _of twists that you wont see comin'.

* * *

_**Destroyed Hero  
**__A Danny Phantom Fanfic_

**Chapter 1  
****They Exist**

_**:::Small Diner:::**_

'_Daniel Fenton(14) went missing six weeks ago, vanishing from his home town of Amity Park, Illinois. His parents, Madeline Fenton and Jack Fenton, mounted a large search for the boy, but no body was discovered, and Daniel had not returned. His mother is urging all to look for him, and begs the police to not give up their search for him-'_ A scoff interrupted the reader's concentration on the paper; the reader was not surprised to find that he was the one who had scoffed at the words. He threw down the paper, the thin sheets narrowly missing the cold eggs that sat before him. He brushed his messy black bangs from his eyes, his right blue eye and left green eye with a slit pupil glaring down at the words. "If only they knew _why _he went missing." The young boy growled, nearly ripping the picture of a black-haired boy with perfect blue eyes grinning at him. If only that boy had known that in a few months from the taking of that picture, his entire life would be turned upside down, starting with a 'broken' portal in his parent's basement.

"'ey! You done with that paper, kid?" Asked a voice from behind. The boy looked up, only to gaze into the drunken scowl of a man that sat at the bar of the diner. "Y'mind if I borrow it?" The boy shrugged, rolled up the paper, and tossed it to the man, who grabbed the paper, his eyes already skimming over the small black print of the front page. His eyes landed on the picture, and he gagged on his alcoholic beverage. He looked up in a hurry, trying to find the kid that nearly matched the picture of the boy that was in the paper, aside from a few alien-like features. But the boy was gone, the plate of eggs that had been there seconds before now cleared, with a crisp ten dollar bill laying on the table, underneath the drained cup of water.

_**:::Dakota:::**_

Two blurs, one green and one purple, shot through the sky, twisting around each other in the dimming light of the afternoon sun. "Hey, Gear! I think this patrol's pretty much wrapped up…wanna head back to headquarters?" A young, African-American boy with thick black dreadlocks asked, his onyx eyes turning to look at his helmet-wearing friend. The mentioned friend, known as Gear by the people of Dakota, flew along side the dark-skinned boy, rocket shoes propelling him through the air, while his friend, known as Static, shot forward on what was simply called the Disk, a round, thin sheet of metal that could slide in on itself to be stored in Static's pocket; it was moved through the air by Static's electrokinesis.

That was what was weird about the two teens mentioned above. They were what were known as 'Bang Babies'. They had been involved, one way or another, in an explosion of a certain type of gas that had given them special powers. Static, who had been at the explosion first hand because he had been accidentally involved in a gang fight, was exposed to the gas, and had inhaled a large amount of it. The result to this was him gaining the ability to control and generate electricity. Gear, on the other hand, hadn't been anywhere near the explosion. Gear had helped Static through the trial of gaining control over his electric powers, and, through Static, had been exposed to a small amount of the gas that had been left on Static's clothes. Since Gear hadn't been exposed directly as others had, all he gained was super-intelligence; not something to really laugh at, considering he could defuse a bomb in 1.96452 seconds, while a trained professional would take over 15 seconds, up to 3 minutes.

Unlike other Bang Babies, who had begun to use their powers to rob banks, attack others, or for other reasons, Static and Gear had focused their abilities into combating others like them, so they could protect the people that they were close to. That was how Static and Gear were born…but Virgil Hawkins and Richie Foley had been alive much longer, and were charged with the duty to keep their super hero personas a secret. Sometimes, the superhero duo even referred to it as 'babysitting' when they had to work harder to keep their secret life just that. A secret.

Gear shifted his gaze to Static, and grinned. "Sure. I don't see much of a point just flying around if someone's not gonna do anything. And don't you mean the _gas station?_" Static rolled his eyes as they began to descend towards a run-down gas station, with the windows boarded up, and most of the wooden door hanging off. The two landed, and pushed aside the wooden door, revealing a high-tech metal door hidden right behind the rotted wood. Static placed a finger to what looked like a key hole, and released a short shock of purple electricity, turning the gears inside to open the door. Once it slid open, he and Gear walked inside, allowing the door to close and lock behind them.

"Nah, I mean headquarters. C'mon Rich! You spent a _month _trying to get me to call it headquarters, and now _you're _calling it a gas station? That's just unfair!" Static said, removing his mask from his eyes, and tossing it into his open blue backpack. "At least nobody will suspect this as the headquarters of Dakota's teen heroes." He chuckled. A loud beeping erupted from Static's pocket, and with haste he withdrew a silver cell phone. He hit the talk button, and held it to his ear. "Hello?" He said into the phone, and then fell silent, waiting for a response.

"Virgil, it's your father." The deep voice on the other line said. Static groaned.

"Pops, before you start…what trouble am I in?" Static asked, his voice a whine. His father chuckled on the other line.

"Nothing, yet. It's actually the trouble that _another _boy is in. Can you come down to the Community Center? I could use the help of another teen boy with this one." His father then abruptly hung up, leaving Static to blink in confusion.

"Well _that _was rather new." He muttered, shoving his phone into his pocket, and searching through the electronic mess on the floor for his 'Virgil' clothes. A blonde boy came out of the side room, wearing glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Hey, Rich. Wanna come down to the Center with me? My Pops apparently has a new case that he could use some help on." Static said, on the verge of walking into the next room to change, just as his partner-in-anti-crime had.

"Yeah, sure. I have nothin' better to do for the time being." Richie responded, and threw the shirt Static had forgotten to the superhero. "Now go get changed, or I'll drag you down the street in only your boxers!"

_**:::Freeman Community Center:::**_

Virgil Hawkins and Richie Foley entered the large Community Center of Dakota, and instantly headed across the lobby, and towards Virgil's father's office, where they could already see Robert Hawkins attempting to converse with someone. The two silently slipped into the office, and watched without a sound as Robert questioned a boy a little younger than Virgil himself.

His hair was messy and black, his bangs falling in front of his mismatched eyes. His left eye - while the right was blue and normal - was neon green, with the pupil a cat-like slit. His ears were another thing. Instead of being rounded at the tip, they came back, tapering quickly to a point, like the ears of an elf. The final strange thing about his face was the fangs that replaced his canine teeth, and poked out from his upper lip. He was dressed strangely, considering the 95 degree weather that was currently occurring.

He was dressed in a long-sleeve black shirt, underneath a white and green hoodie that was nearly completely zipped. His jeans were dark and long, going so far as to even bag around his ankles slightly. He wore dark black combat boots, and around his waist, keeping his black shirt to his sides, was a chain serving for a belt; the chain looked like it had been dug up from some junk yard. His hands were handcuffed together at the wrist, and another pair of handcuffs were hooked around the chain in the middle of the first pair of handcuffs, with the second cuff attached to the arm of a chair. Surprisingly, yet _another _pair of handcuffs were securing his hands to the arm of the soft chair he was sitting in.

He slouched, keeping his back away from the back of the chair, and his eyes were staring straight forward, as if he couldn't see anything. His mouth was clamped shut, and he didn't even glance at Virgil or Richie.

"Please, son. Just tell me your name. You know what, you don't even have to tell me that. Tell me _anything _about yourself." Robert said, talking in a soft tone to the silent boy. The boy just raised his arms slightly, and let them fall back once more; or, at least, as far as his arms could go before the handcuffs would stop him. "I know you want to be let go. But we need to know where you're from, so we can get you back home. Wont you tell me?" The boy remained silently, and just gave a small tug on the handcuffs, before he stopped moving altogether. Robert sighed, and stepped back. He turned to his son and his son's best friend, a tired smile stretching across his face. "Thanks for coming Virgil, Richie. Can I speak to you two outside?" Robert asked, and, without waiting, headed towards the door. The two younger boys followed, and closed the door behind them.

"Hey, Pops. Who's the kid you're working with?" Virgil asked, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder where the boy was still handcuffed to the chair. Robert sighed, and shook his head slowly.

"If only I knew, son." Virgil blinked at his father.

"Huh?"

"Nobody knows anything about him. His name, where he's from, his birthday, why he's here…how he even _got _here, or how long he's been on the streets…"

"Whoa whoa whoa…that kid's been on the _street_?" Richie asked, looking shocked. "No offense, Mr. Hawkins, but I've seen kids that live on the street, and they don't look like that. I mean…they look much better than he does."

"I know. The kid looks like he's starved." Robert answered. "But he wont eat anything. I've been trying to get him to eat for the past two hours, but he just turns away from it all. That's all he really does. Small movements. No words, no reactions to really anything…" Robert sighed. "The police brought him in this morning; caught him trying to swipe some food from a McDonalds dumpster. They chased him for a solid half hour, and they were in their police cruisers; that kid really can move when he wants to. They only actually took him down after he was to exhausted to run anymore. Kid needed a oxygen mask just to stay conscious after exerting himself so much so suddenly. They brought him here afterwards once they tried to figure out who he was and where he was from; they thought I could get some info out of him, considering I've helped them on cases like this before."

"So then why's he handcuffed? With _three _cuffs?" Virgil asked.

"That's a weird thing about him, besides his skill at running and evading. They brought him in in handcuffs, since he had tried running before. Once they mentioned that they wanted me to find out who a family friend was who was close, the kid basically went berserk. Tried to tear up the place to get out. You'd think that'd be hard with handcuffs, right?" Robert waited as the two teens nodded. "Apparently, so did he. He broke out of the handcuffs, and I mean _literally. _The cuffs snapped right at the chain; the actual cuffs are still around his forearms, since we couldn't get them off without him pulling away. They decided to use three to keep him here." Robert sighed. "I was hoping that you two could talk to him. You know, make him feel comfortable and get some info on who he is and whatnot. You think you could do it?" Virgil grinned.

"At the very least, Pops, we could try. Besides! Isn't one kid that I've talked to who didn't start talkin' back!"

"That's 'cause they wanted to tell you to shut your motor mouth up." Richie laughed, and made his way into the room with the mystery boy, Virgil following with the silent promise to kill him later.

The boy was as they had left him; arms handcuffed to the side of the chair, eyes forward, slouched posture…hardly even looked like he was breathing. Virgil started with a simply question. "Hey, you're not dead, are you?" The boy hardly responded to that; his right index finger twitched slightly, but that was it. "Well, a reaction is a start…so, you wanna tell us your name?" The boy didn't even twitch this time. "How about we start with where you're from?" No reaction. "No? That's cool. We can start with another one. Um…how bout this one? What's your favorite color?" The boy's mouth twitched, almost like he was about to smile. Virgil grinned. "The beginning of a smile! Now we're getting somewhere! So, dude, why'd you run from the police?" The boy lowered his head slightly, but said nothing. _At least he's reacting more to me than he did Pops._ Virgil thought.

"Let me try, V." Richie said. "So, dude. My name's Richie Foley. I'm currently attending Dakota High in my Sophomore Year, as is my friend Virgil Hawkins. We kinda both suck at Science cause we don't study, and we both _hate _English. With a passion." The boy cracked a knowing smile, but quickly wiped it away. "In our free time, we…uh, we…um…play…video games…about superheroes. Yeah, that's it." Richie smiled uncertainly at that. "I like computers to, and Virgil like shocking himself with electricity, the nut." Virgil scowled. "So…wanna tell us somethin' about yourself?" The boy was still, and for a second, the teens thought he wasn't going to do anything. But then, ever so slowly, he shook his head. Then, he quickly nodded, before pausing, and shook his head again, this time more roughly. "Aw! Come on! I saw you nod! You wanna tell us _something_!" The boy nodded his head. "So…what is it? Your name? Where you came from? Your favorite COLOR?" Richie said the last dramatically, and received a small smile from the boy yet again. Once again, though, it was gone in an instant. The two teens waited in silence, until, slowly, the boy turned his head towards the window, his hands twisting lightly in the cuffs that held him. He glanced up pointedly to Virgil, then back to the cuffs around his wrists. Virgil grinned.

"You'll be let go once we know who you are." He said. "And then maybe you can eat something, since you were hungry enough to try and eat dumpster-food, and then stubborn enough to not accept other food when handcuffed…so…will you tell us who you are yet?" Virgil questioned. Instead of answering, or even shaking his head, the boy lightly bit his lower lip, and then blew out, a shrill whistle escaping his mostly-closed mouth. The whistle increased in pitch and intensity, until Virgil and Richie had to cover their ears as the whistle increased to what had to be the frequency that only dogs could hear clearly.

Without warning, a large hawk-like creature came through the window. It looked mostly like a hawk, but with the plume of a cardinal on the back of its head. Where its feathery tail ended, two ribbon-like tails extended for two-and-a-half feet, doubling the overall size of the massive bird. The bird itself was pitch-black, silver eyes gleaming on its head. It had a streak of red doing from the center of its beak, between its eyes, and then down its back, ending with red tipping its primary feathers on its tail and wings. The ribbon-like tails also ended in the blood-red color. The bird's wings, altogether, had to be around four feet from tip to tip.

Flapping its wide wings frantically, the bird maneuvered closer to the boy, until it was nearly right on top of him. With a dramatic drop, the bird's black talons slashed through the handcuffs, and the boy instantly pulled his hands apart. He jumped to his feet, and clicked his tongue twice. The bird landed on his shoulder, its claws digging into the cloth of the boy's hoodie and shirt. In an instant, the boy had spurred himself towards the door, his feet hitting the ground hard as he dashed off.

"Whoa!" Virgil yelped, jumping out of the way lest the fleeing teen run him right over. The door was open, sunlight was filtering through the door from a window, everything was perfect…until Robert was suddenly in the doorway, blocking the boy's path at the last second. With a loud 'OOMPH!' from Robert and the boy, both bounced back and toppled to the ground, the bird being flung from the boy's shoulder with a loud screech of surprise. Virgil and Richie, still trying to process what had happened, just stared with dropped jaws. What happened next shocked all that could hear, which did not include Robert, since he was in the hallway, dazed.

"Idiot!" The bird squawked, flapping its wings as it ran at the boy, its eyes alight with anger. "Did you _not _see the man right in the doorway?" The boy rubbed his head, and fixed a glare on the bird, which just continued to flap its wings in fury. "I don't care if he appeared suddenly! You should have been able to dodge with your reflexes! And DON'T GIVE ME THAT EXCUSE!" The bird then began to rapidly peck the boy on the top of the head, its white beak smashing painfully into the boy's skull. The boy swatted the bird away, and rubbed his head, trying to somehow dull the pain.

"…uuuuhhh…" Richie said slowly, looking between the boy who wouldn't talk, and the bird that _could_. "Are we missing something here? Like, a 'the missing link' type of thing?" The bird slowly turned its eyes to Richie, and seemed to raise an eyebrow, or in the birds case, a thin streak of red that was over its left eye.

"Are you a bird that got caught in the Big Bang or something?" Virgil asked flat out after closing the door, allowing his father to stay outside while he still tried to break out of the daze that him hitting his head on the wall had brought up. The bird blinked twice slowly.

"Sure, let's go with that." It said, before putting part of its right wind to its neck, and coughed slightly as if to clear its throat. "My name is Pallian, and this is Ezrel." The bird said, before bowing slightly and awkwardly. "At your service." A hand suddenly clamped down on the bird's beak, forcing it to fall silent. It turned out that the boy was the one who had done so, and had turned a warning look to the bird.

"No, we're not." The boy said, his voice slightly rough from non-use, and from what sounded like the wind that rushed out of his lungs to help form the words was brushing against something in his throat. "Pallian, nice job at staying secretive. Hours of not talking is ruined by a _bird_." Pallian glowered, as if being referred to as a bird was a major insult. "And I told you to not call me Ezrel in front of people." The boy stood, allowing the grumbling Pallian to fly up and land, once more, on his shoulder. "Sorry, Richie Foley, Virgil Hawkins, but I really must be going." The boy, referred to as Ezrel by Pallian, made his way for an open window that would lead to the bushes beyond the window, and the street farther off. Virgil darted his hand out, and gripped the boy's shoulder that wasn't occupied by a giant talking bird, who seemed to have magically shrunk slightly, so its head was only slightly above the top of the boy's.

"Wait a minute. You can't just leave. You still need to answer some questions. Not because I was told to ask you, but because I'm now _seriously _curious." Virgil said, his face betraying nothing. The boy jerked out of his grip, and looked over his shoulder so his blue eye was focused on the two.

"…you have ten seconds. I guess I owe you that much, since all this is going to take some explaining to your dad…" He muttered.

"What's your name?" Richie started off.

"You can call me Danny Zerex; don't try to enter that name into the data base or anything. I made it up. Sort of." The boy grumbled the last part to himself. "Pallian here, and others like him, named me Ezrel though. Depends on what you'd like to use." He glanced at the clock. "Look at that, time's up. Bye." The boy walked towards the window, and stuck one leg out, prepared to slip out and away.

"Wait! Why did you leave your home?" Virgil asked. "People that care about you _have _to be there." The boy looked down; Virgil and Richie hadn't really decided on what to call him yet.

"I bet there still are, if they're not pissed enough to hate me for running away…" The boy muttered, mostly to himself, before looking to Virgil and Richie once more with his blue eye. "You've heard about how humans run away from the unexplained to protect themselves, right?" He asked, and Virgil and Richie nodded; this was common knowledge, especially when they were involved in defeating Bang Babies. The boy turned his head, so his green eye was fixed on them. "What about the unexplained running away from the humans to protect the people?" With a sudden crash, the boy was gone, and out of sight, letting the words linger in the air around Virgil and Richie…

_**:::That Night:::**_

"Pop's pretty angry about how the kid ran off." Virgil said, speaking into the walkie-talkie-like box that Static and Gear used to communicate, and through that, Virgil and Richie when they wer both alone. "And how we kinda let him go." Richie laughed on the other line.

"_Sorry, V, but you're the one who didn't do anything to stop him."_ His voice came through the small speaker. _"He was the case of _your _dad, not mine."_

"Yeah yeah, so you can't be held responsible…hey, did you do a search on the kid yet?" Virgil asked, looking away from his laptop as he tried to think of another search engine he could use. He waited as faint static came through the line, before the Foley finally responded.

"_Yeah, but I cant find anything. I've tried Danny, Danny Zerex, Zerex, DZ, Ezrel, Danny Ezrel, Ezrel Zerex, DEZ…every combination I could think of that would fit the three names the guy gave us. Nothing! How about you? Any luck on your end?"_ Richie replied, his line cutting off as he started to yawn.

"No…I've tried everything that you have to, and even on three different search engines. There's nothing! I even hacked into the government files with a little…juice." He snapped his fingers, purple sparks flying off as he said this. "Nothing came up with those names. It's like the kid doesn't even exist!"

"_We're forgetting that he said that he made the name Danny Zerex up. Danny might be his real _first _name, but that doesn't mean that Zerex is. Besides, the word Zerex sounds to alien to be a real word from a real language. It doesn't come up in any translation engines I've found on the internet… And he said that a _bird_ gave him the name of Ezrel, so that's probably why nothing comes up when we enter Ezrel in there, and that's if we spelled Ezrel and Zerex right."_ Richie rambled. He probably would have continued, but Virgil cut him off.

"Wait a minute…Rich, that's it! The bird!" Virgil quickly keyed in 'Bird Encyclopedia' into the Google search bar, and hit enter with more force than was probably necessary.

"_What's it? What's the bird have to do with anything?"_ Richie asked.

"Well, think about it! What kind of bird is _that _big and can _talk_, and even _looks _like that?" Virgil asked as he clicked on a link, and found a details bar on the encyclopedia that contained every bird known to man. And even three that were known to Superman.

"_It agreed with you when you asked if it was a Bang Bird, remember?"_ Richie asked, then laughed at his own play on words.

"It said _sure_, Richie. That's not a definite yes, bro!" Virgil said as he typed in different words in the details bar. Black and red came up with nothing that was the same. Ribbon-tails didn't produce anything either. Nor did 'giant', 'size-changing', or 'talking'. Virgil leaned back on his bed, breathing out deeply with wide eyes. "Rich, there's nothing in this entire encyclopedia that matches that bird…so…" Virgil hit the back button, and began to type a description into the Google bar. He gently tapped enter, and waited as the links that would hopefully give him answers appeared. Virgil breathed out in shock again.

There was only one link.

"Richie, I hope this answers our question about the bird…it might give us some more answers to our questions…" Richie was silent as Virgil clicked the link. The entire screen turned black, and for a second, Virgil thought that his computer had been shut down by some virus or a depleted battery. But, when he squinted, he could see a small text growing larger and larger in the black background. Soon, the letters were in full view. But there weren't many. The title was written in red, with a speeding bird that resembled the bird that was with the boy closely, with only a few differences in the markings and the color tone of the red and black. Above the bird, acting as the title to the page, were the words 'Drac Ezrel'. Two bars were right under the title that looked like it was on fire, one with the white word for 'Identification', and the one right below it for 'Password'. The only other words were the words 'Identification and Password needed to enter Drac Ezrel'. Virgil relayed all of this through the walkie-talkie known as the Shock Box. "And there's no 'sign up' option on here. How do people get an ID and make a password without that?"

"_What if its for something with the government? They'd assign this stuff and put it in through their central computer, wouldn't they?"_ Richie asked. Virgil shrugged, even though Richie wasn't there.

"If it's government-related…" Virgil thought out loud, and put a hand to the screen of his computer. Allowing purple electricity to surround his hand, he shocked his laptop, and waited for his powers to do their thing and hack into the website. But, with a loud hiss of malfunctioning wires, and the dancing of sparks, the computer went dead. "YOUCH!" Virgil yelped, and tossed the burning laptop off of his bed, and onto the floor, where it basically burst into flames. After putting out the small blaze, Virgil picked up the Shock Box. "Uh…Richie? …don't try to hack that website…"

_**:::Dark part of Dakota:::**_

Two beings sat in the darkness, one a human, and the other a giant bird. "If you wanted to get out of there so quickly Ezrel…then why're we still in this city? Shouldn't we have continued on by now?" Asked the bird.

"You can go ahead and leave any time you want, Pallian. I didn't demand for you to come with me…that was your home, not mine, and I decided to leave so they wouldn't find me. It was becoming to much of a hassle to protect the town, keep that secret from my family…and then try to keep another secret from my friends, and going into The Dragon's Spine." The human referred to as Ezrel sighed. "It was to hard to live the life of Ezrel and Danny."

"You're still living it now, you know. And now those two humans know both your names." The bird crowed, as if he was laughing. The human fixed an annoyed, dual-colored stare on the large creature.

"Unless I'm mistaken, you gave out the one that they're _not supposed to know about!_" The bird stopped laughing at this accusation. "Besides, it's not in any database, and they cant get into Drac Ezrel without Identification and a Password…and a Dracien Crystal…and the Dracien ability…and a card scanner." The boy said. "Yeah, that'd be the only way to find out what 'Ezrel' is, and that my real name's Danny."

"Now who's the dumb one?" Pallian squawked. "You just said what your real name is!"

"Yeah, but it's the middle of the night, in the _darkest _part of town. I don't think anyone's going to use it against me here, and I doubt there's some surveillance system that's set up to catch runaways giving out their real names to magical talking birds."

"Point taken." The bird said almost instantly. "You never answered why we're still here, though." Danny shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess it's because I feel at home here. There's what they call 'Bang Babies', so I'd fit right in here. And since I've never really heard of them, then news of anything that the others at home would recognize wont even reach them. I guess it's more of a 'I can blend in here' type of deal." Danny answered. "_He _wont find me either, since there's enough weird stuff happening here, and if I stay downwind, then his rat-nose wont find out my location."

"But what if he does? Then you'll kinda be screwed. I don't think we'll be able to break you out again." Pallian warned. Danny chuckled.

"I know. But it's not my intention to be caught again by the man that started this entire thing in the first place." Danny responded in an even tone. He stood up, and looked down to the bird that began to grow inside, until its head was level with his elbow. "You ready to go on a patrol?" Pallian sighed with a dreamy look on his hawk-like face.

"Night patrols…I thought I'd never be able to do one again…" He said dreamily, and took to the air, his massive wings causing the air around him to vibrate. Danny grinned.

"Neither did I, Pallian, neither did I…"

_**:::The Next Day:::**_

"You've got to be kidding me!" Static yelped as he performed yet another back flip on his Disk, before firing off small bursts of electricity at the shadow-like man below him that was firing off his _own _electricity. "Gear, since when could Ebon fire off electricity?" Static called to his partner and friend, and looked over to him right in time to see a way out-of-date dinosaur of a computer crash into Gear's chest, sending the hovering boy hurtling towards the ground. "And throw computers with his mind?" Static lowered himself slightly to dodge a remote that was flying at his face to fast for comfort. "Since when could you do this stuff, Ebon! What'd you do, get a whiff of more gas?"

"Ebon? Who is this Ebon of which you speak?" Ebon asked, his voice much higher and not his own, with the stereotypical New Jersey accent applied to his words.

"C'mon, cut the crap, Ebon!" Gear grumbled as he raised himself into the air on his rocket-powered skate-shoe-things once more.

"I have already informed you, weak humans! Who is this Ebon? I am TECHNUS, MASTER OF ALL TECHNOLOGY AND ALL THINGS ELECTRONIC AND BEEPING! AND I SHALL-"

"Stop my yammering!" Came a nearly-perfect cry from off to the right, from the top of a building. "Seriously, Techy, do you _ever _stop _talking?"_ Another voice came, seemingly from the same place, but with a different tone. Ebon, Static, and Gear all looked to where a boy sat on the edge of a nine-story building, his legs crossed, one hand in his lap, and the other propped up against a box, with his head in that hand.

He had messy white hair, with the bangs falling before his eyes. His right eye was blood-red with a slit pupil, while his left eye was solid neon-green; there was no pupil whatsoever, and the sclera of his eye was pitch black. His ears, strangely, were tapered off to a quick tip, like elf ears. In his mouth, were four sharp fangs, the upper fangs poking out from underneath his upper lip. His nails were claws, sharpened to a fine point. The boy was dressed in a loose white t-shirt underneath a black hoodie, with a large white D with a P on the inside on the upper back of the hoodie. Around his neck was a black chain, and hanging from it was a black copy of the DP symbol that was on his hoodie. Hanging from his neck was another necklace, this one on a white chain. On this was an about two-inch-long green crystal, shaped like a hexagonal cylinder, coming to a sharp tip at the bottom. Hanging from this chain was also a green dog tag with something written in silver on it. The boy's boots were white, and he wore white fingerless gloves.

Ebon pointed dramatically. "IT IS YOU, CHILD! WHY MUST YOU FOLLOW ME EVERYWHERE?" He yelled. The boy raised a white eyebrow.

"Well…I kinda didn't…and dude, I _don't_. It's kinda hard to ignore my _alarm _though, if you know what I mean." The boy said.

"BUT WHY ARE YOU HERE, CHILD?"

"Because I can be. Why don't you go talk to Plasmius? He'll tell you why I left. And you can also tell him that I'm gonna be heading west once we're done here, since that idiot's still heading north." Static looked between Ebon and the boy.

"Uuuuhhh…and you're talking to Ebon why?" He asked. The boy blinked with wide eyes at Static, as if he had just noticed him.

"Um…yeah, that's not Ebon." The boy said, pointing.

"And how would you know that?" Gear questioned. "He looks pretty Ebon-like to me."

"It's called possession. Any fool could do it…if you're the _right _kind of fool. Not human fool, obviously. And I can show you." The boy said, before suddenly toppling head-first off the top of the building. Static and Gear shouted in shock, as did the small crowd that was forming below the two hovering heroes, and the currently-_falling _boy. Right before the boy hit the pavement, though, he veered up, and shot forward like a rocket, inches from the ground. With a loud _THUD!_ the boy slammed into Ebon…and then vanished from sight completely. Ebon, though, fell over, and began to convulse on the ground, his limbs twitching and shaking.

"Uh…should we do something?" Gear whispered, and Static shrugged, honestly confused. Suddenly, the boy appeared again at Ebon's side, holding what looked like a white-cloaked arm with a green _hand _sticking out of it. He was grunting, pulling with quite a bit of strength on the arm that was coming out of the side of Ebon's chest. Suddenly, with a powerful yank, a humanoid figure came flying out of Ebon's body, leaving the shadow-like boy to stop convulsing, and lay unconsciously on the street. The boy turned with the figure following his momentum, and slammed the figure into the ground with a powerful shockwave that rattled windows for buildings and buildings down the road. The boy stood straight.

"Now, Technus…you gonna tell all these good folk that you're sorry for possessing someone again after I strictly told you not to?" The boy asked, peering down into the crater that the impact had caused. A green-skinned man jumped up. He wore glasses, and had a white mullet.

"AH HA, CHILD! YOU TOLD ME THAT I COULDN'T POSSES PEOPLE IN AMITY PARK! BUT AS YOU CAN SEE, THIS IS NOT AMITY! AND-"

"Dude, did you just _rhyme?"_ The boy asked, ignoring the other ramblings that the green-skinned man was about to shout out. He looked to the crowd. "Did he just rhyme?" He asked. Nobody made move, so the boy looked to Static and Gear. "Did he just _rhyme?"_ He asked again. The two nodded slowly, and the white-haired youth looked to Technus. "Why are you rhyming? I thought your thing was screaming a monologue!" The boy said, and reached into a pocket off his hoodie. "I could always count on you guys…the Box Ghost for his 'BEWARE!', Skulker for his guns, the Lunch Lady for her offerings of food and then attacking with living meat, Plasmius being an evil fruit loop…and you with your monologues. I guess a few months could really change a ghost!" The boy suddenly whipped out a black and green thermos with the white DP symbol on the side, and uncapped it.

"What's he gonna do, splash soup all over the guy?" Gear asked, right before a whirlwind of white and blue energy spiraled out of the front of the thermos, and surrounded Technus. The green-skinned man screamed as he was pulled into the thermos, and the boy slammed down the lid firmly. "DUDE! I NEED TO GET ONE OF THOSE!" He said excitedly.

_He's probably already thinking of taking it apart, and building ones that will capture Bang Babies…_ Static thought with a blank look. The boy pocketed the thermos-like device, and sighed, staring at the crater in the ground.

"If I had the money, I'd pay for repairs…" The boy muttered. "Unneeded damage right there" He suddenly _took to the air_, no Disk, not rockets, no nothing. He just started floating up, staring down at the center of the crater with his mismatched eyes.

"Hey!" Static yelled, propelling the Disk to bring him forward once the boy was at level with them. The white-haired youth looked over his shoulder, raising a white eyebrow, before turning completely. "How're you doing that?" He asked, pointing.

"Doing what?"

"Floating! How're you floating without anything to lift you?" Static questioned, waving his arms in the air. The boy cocked his head.

"Well…um…you know, I never actually thought about that. I guess I can…just…defy gravity or something."

"Like Superman!" Gear said.

"Uh, right. Like Superman." The boy agreed slowly.

"Who _are _you anyway? Are you a Bang Baby or something? Duh, of course you are." Static muttered the last to himself, palming his forehead.

"You can call me Phantom, since that's what others used to…and, actually, I'm a ghost." The boy answered. The two teen heroes nearly fell out of the sky laughing at this statement.

"Ghosts? Ghosts arent real!" Gear laughed. "It's scientifically impossible!"

"So is electric powers, and whatever that boy down there can do. And having a gas give you a super-brain." Phantom pointed out. "Believe what you want, but there _are _ghosts. There's not a Ghost Zone for nothing."

"…right…so if there's 'ghosts'…then is that what that was down there?"

"The guy with the mullet? Yeah, he's a ghost that I've fought numerous times. Since you'll probably end up fighting him again…his name's Technus. His abilities are controlling anything that has to do with technology, so you would be in trouble." Phantom motioned towards Gear. "You're called Gear, right? Well, Gear, you'd be kinda screwed in a fight if he managed to take over your tech. But he's kinda old, so I don't think he'd be able to use something that's this futuristic, so you might be good. Besides the abilities with technology, he has a small amount of electrical powers, like you do. Static, right?" Static nodded. "Well, I guess I should say it's good to meet you two. I've heard a lot about you. And, hopefully, you've heard nothing about me."

"Can't say we have. Why? You a bad guy?" Static asked, crossing his arms. Phantom held up his hands in a surrendering gesture.

"Actually, contrary to what my hometown thought, I'm the good guy. I protected them from ghosts that attacked frequently. They still attack there, but not as much, since their main point of entry was damaged a few months ago." Phantom responded. "That's why it's a good thing you didn't hear any rumors about me. Ghosts are supposed to be evil, so others made up stories to make me look that way as well, taking the damage that happened in a fight, multiplying it by seventeen, and then spitting it out into the community. If you _had _heard about me, you probably would have been like the Ghost Hunters I've come across: Shoot now, ask questions never." The floating boy looked down to the crater. "Just watch. Someone will know who I am, know I'm a ghost, take that crater, and say that I destroyed an entire street or two in a psychopathic rampage." Phantom muttered scornfully. "And then the GH will come, I'll have to lay low, and my week will be ruined."

"Why was that Bang Baby attacking Ebon?" Gear asked, raising an eyebrow from behind the visor of his helmet-mask(thing). "Bad guys usually don't attack bad guys. Not with Bang Babies, anyway. And _nobody _attacks _Ebon._ That's kinda crazy."

"For the last time, it was a _ghost._ And he attacked that guy 'Ebon'…you know what? I have no idea why Technus would attack a guy that wasn't made of computers." Phantom looked down to where Ebon was passed out on the street, and stared with a blank expression at the iPhone, probably stolen, that was laying next to him. "Oh. That might do it." He sighed. "Well, it was really refreshing to meet some other guys who want to help the common man…but I kinda have to fly. I don't need a news crew showing up and blasting my picture all over the TV; wouldn't really help in my 'lay low' plan." Phantom drifted backwards, and slowly began to become transparent. "Not that you'll take me up on the offer…but if you need me to help with an attacking ghost, don't worry. I'll be there." The body of the boy then was completely gone, his form having dissipated into thin air. Static and Gear just hovered there, silent, as they stared where the boy had vanished.

"…are you as confused as I am?" Gear asked in a whisper, looking sideways at his friend.

"I think so, Gear." Static answered. "I have _no_ idea what just went down…and I have no idea who this 'Phantom' guy is either…wanna know what I say we do?" Static asked, slowly rotating so he was facing his techno friend.

"Huh?" Static suddenly sped off, shooting towards his house.

"GOOGLE IT!"

_**:::Hawkins Residence:::**_

"Anything yet?" Richie asked, waltzing into Virgil's room with a pack of sodas in one hand, and a bowl of salted potato chips in the other. He plopped down on the bed next to Virgil, leaning over slightly so that glare on the screen would lessen. Virgil sighed heavily once more; he had already sighed seven times before Richie had re-entered the room.

"Do you want to start on page 1, or 532?" Virgil asked, looking to his blonde friend. Richie's jaw dropped.

"That many pages? Are you serious?" He inquired, leaning over even more to glimpse the small black numbers on the top of the Google page.

"Dead serious, Rich. Over a billion hits!" Virgil responded, pointing. Richie looked at the few links that the screen would allow him to glimpse before he would have to scroll down. He suddenly snatched the laptop away from Virgil, and typed a few words into the search bar next to the word 'Phantom'. "What're you doing?" Virgil asked, popping a large chip in his mouth.

"Refining the search. We don't need stuff like Phantom of the Opera or 'Phantom-related-but-not-our-Phantom' bothering us throughout our research." Richie responded, and hit enter after he typed the last word of 'Ghost'. The list shortened, but only by a few, leaving a little over one billion hits on the page. Richie groaned.

"Well, it got the search down by a few thousand." Virgil pointed out. "And look at the first link. 'Phantom Watch'. Try that one." The young African-American said, pointing at the blue link. Richie moved the pointer so it hovered over the two words, and clicked it. A gray page popped up, with a few more links on it, and information on the first page along with a picture.

'_Phantom Watch is all about the views of the Ghost Boy of Amity Park, Danny Phantom'_ The page began. Virgil and Richie looked to one another with hopeful eyes, and then began to read again, their eyes flying over the page with renewed vigor. _'All comments are welcome, whether they're good or bad, or somewhere in between.' _

"Okay, but what about some info on this guy?" Virgil asked the screen, as if expecting an answer to come flying out of the speakers. Richie held back a laugh, and clicked the link that he had noticed earlier: History. More green words appeared on the gray screen, switching out the old for new. In silence, the teens began to read.

'_In the year 2008, Amity Park was a normal town. Nothing really set it apart from any other boring town, and nothing happened to make it anywhere near as famous as Gotham, Metropolis, or Jump City. But in that year, something _did _happen. Creatures that nobody could explain began to appear. Some thought that were aliens. Others believed they were demons. Soon, the answer came. These creatures were ghosts.'_

"That was before the Big Bang!" Virgil hissed, remembering a few months ago when the Bang had occurred. "Does that mean the kid's not a Bang Baby?"

"I dunno, Virg." Richie responded, his eyes still flying over the text.

'_Around the same time that the ghosts started to actually appear in great numbers, another ghost appeared, apparently beating down the ghosts that would attack the human population. This ghost was labeled as Inviso-Bill by the public, but has made many attempts to correct them, saying that his real name is Danny Phantom. For months, he defeated ghosts, while at the same time, causing panic. Some called him a hero. Others a monstrosity that was to be killed. Like other ghosts, he was hunted. Seven months ago, though, he just vanished right off the face of the earth. He had been slightly stranger whenever he did appear for fights before he vanished, making the ghosts chase him instantly so nobody could witness the fight. Then he just vanished. He hasn't been heard from, nor seen, since. Rumors are going around that he finally moved on. There's others saying that he got tired of the mistreatment he got, and decided to stay in the Ghost Zone. Nobody really knows what happened to the Ghost Boy.'_ Virgil and Richie leaned back from the computer, having not noticed they had been leaning closer and closer to it every second.

"So…he just…vanished?" Richie asked slowly. Virgil nodded.

"I think so…but there's no guarantee if this is even the same guy. I mean, there could be two or something." Virgil said, and scrolled down to where there was a picture of a white-haired, green-eyed boy dressed in a black hazmat suit, his hand glowing green, with his palm facing what looked like a giant suit of armor that had come to life. "There's similarities, but he looks a lot different, too." Virgil pointed out.

"Well, if we see him again, why don't we ask him?" Richie asked. "Y'know…show him a picture of this guy, and ask him if that's him. It _has _been seven months since he was last seen. He could have changed."

"Clothes, yeah, but his ears were like elf ears. These kid's ears aren't. And the fangs, to, and the eyes, Rich." Virgil indicated what he was talking about by motioning to the picture every time he said some type of physical difference.

"But the symbol's the same." Richie pointed quickly to the same DP symbol at the top of the page that Phantom had been wearing. "I don't think someone would copy a symbol."

"What if it's a brand of clothing?"

"That makes hoodies and hazmat suits? I don't think so, V-man, but nice try. It'd make sense for Danny Phantom, though. Look. There's the 'D'," Richie traced the white 'D' on the screen. "and there's the 'P'." He tapped the opened inside of the D, which had the appearance of a solid, black 'P'. "Danny Phantom." He said with emphasis.

"So then why would Phantom be wearing the symbol for Danny Phantom. Unless…they're twin brothers!"

"Dude…they'd have to be identical for the similarities that are there…and you already pointed out the differences that would disprove that. Plus, what idiot would name their kid Danny Phantom, and their other kid, the other _twin_, Phantom."

"What idiot would name their kid Richie?" Richie stared at Virgil, and Virgil glared back. The two then broke down laughing, clutching their sides.

"V-man, I think you're becoming a little to over-protective of your theories." Richie laughed. Slowly, the laughing of the two friends ceased, sending the room into a roaring silence. "So…what're we going to do to figure out if this guy is good or bad?"

"Watch him, I guess." Virgil responded, shrugging. "If we attack the man, then he might decide to be hostile towards the city, even if he _is _a good guy right now. That's the last thing Dakota, and Static and Gear, need. Watching him could also tell us more information then this site already-hey, what the hell?" Virgil clicked on a link that navigated them away from Phantom Watch.

It took them to the website for Damage Patrol; a website to list the damage that Bang Babies had done ever since the Big Bang had occurred. The latest assessment was made by a witness to the 'battle', and a supposedly true account was laid out plainly on the white page.

"That Phantom kid didn't attack us while we were saving kids!" Richie protested to one of the very first lines. "And we did _not _fight him!"

"And he didn't send us to a hospital, with us lucky to escape with our lives!" Virgil added, glaring at the picture of Dakota Hospital.

"And he definitely didn't destroy that entire street on a psychopathic rampage!" The two teens cried in unison, before frowning, and turning to one another.

"Isn't that _exactly _what he said was going to happen?" Virgil asked. "I'm pretty sure it was."

"Maybe one of his powers is lookin' into the future." Richie said, his eyes going wide. "Maybe he already knows who we are!" He gasped. "Maybe he'll know if we'll have corn for lunch on Friday!" He whispered in a serious voice.

"Before we start freaking out if we're gonna be eating corn…let's try this." Virgil said, hitting the back button until he returned to Phantom Watch. He brought the pointer back up to the navigation tabs at the top of the webpage, and clicked on the tap that read 'Known Powers'. "Let's see if there's anything here about knowing the future."

'_Flight - Danny Phantom can fly, like all ghosts, without the use of wings or rocket boots or any contraption.'_

"Well that's a helpful power." Richie muttered, glaring at his shoes, which could morph into the boots/skates that Gear used to fly through the sky.

'_Wall Walking - Believed to be a branch of his flight ability, it has been reported that Danny Phantom can walk up vertical walls, and stand upside-down on ceilings.'_

"That's pretty cool…I wonder if I can do that with electricity…" Virgil trailed, looking hopefully to the wall to his right, as if he was going to suddenly jump up and start scaling the wall like Spiderman.

'_Ecto-rays - Like most high-level ghosts, Danny Phantom can shoot ectoplasm, the energy that ghosts are made up of, from his hand, and has even been seen using his heel to deliver ecto-powered kicks._

"…that doesn't sound like a Bang Baby ability."

"I'm telling you, V, he's _not _a Bang Baby."

'_Invisibility - A common power of ghosts; the ability to disappear before the naked eye.'_

'_Intangibility - Another power common for ghosts; the ability to walk through solid objects.'_

'_Cryokinesis - An unconfirmed power. Only one account, with only one witness, has been reported. It's said that Danny Phantom can control ice at will.'_

"…all those abilities are pretty cool." Richie said, before furrowing his eyebrows. "Hey, what's that?" He asked, pointing. At the bottom of the page, almost completely hidden from view, was a single, long rectangle for a password to gain farther access to the power sheet. "I guess some people know more about his powers than others, and don't feel like sharing."

"Stingy little…" Virgil grumbled, crossing his arms. "I still say he's a Bang Baby."

"I'm starting to be convinced more and more that he's not." Richie countered. "Look at the information that this website has. Everything points _away _from Bang Babies, and towards…" Richie trailed, not wanting to say what he was thinking, knowing that Virgil would probably instant shoot it down.

"What, Rich. What does it point towards?" Virgil asked, already having a feeling that he knew the answer.

"Ghosts." Yup, the electro-powered teen had thought correctly. "I know you don't believe. I don't either. But we also didn't think that gas could give us superpowers. I'm just saying that we shouldn't completely push away the idea. It might have something behind it." Virgil stared at his blonde, glasses-wearing friend.

"Fine. We'll keep that in the _back _of what we've got. First thing's first…we should try to contact this kid. Try to find out more about him." Richie blinked at his friend's words; but he also blinked at the words that were coming from the police scanner that sat on Virgil's desk.

"Hey, turn that up. What're they saying?" Richie asked, pointing. Virgil blinked three times rapidly, before practically diving for the scanner, and turning the knob so the sound would increase in volume. The two listened closely to the female dispatcher that was speaking through the radio.

"_Report of two being fighting on Clark St. Request of police present, over." _The dispatcher said. A few seconds of static passed.

"_On my way. What's the description? Over."_ A male policeman's voice filtered through, and static filled the room once more.

"_One apparently a meat monster, the other a teenage-looking boy with white hair and strange eyes. Both are hovering over the city, and the boy is surrounded by a white glow, over."_ The dispatcher answered. Virgil and Richie whipped around to look at each other so fast, they almost smashed heads while nearly receiving whiplash. They didn't even hear the policeman's reply of how he was going to be there to try and find out what was going on.

"Care to go for a midnight flight?" Virgil asked, holding up his Disk.

_**:::Two Minutes Later:::**_

Within two minutes, Static and Gear were shooting through the sky, mere blurs against the darkened landscape, the light from the electricity-surrounded Disk and rocket boots barely cutting through the black-as-pitch air. Two things _did _slice through the oh-so-dark sky, though. One was a faintly-glowing figure, hovering a few dozen feet above the highest sky-scrapers. The other were sudden green flashes that would erupt from the glowing figure, bursting into small, concentrated fireworks a few feet from the thrower, illuminating a giant humanoid…made of meat. "I guess they weren't kidding." Gear said sarcastically.

"I know…that's a little weird, but we've seen weirder. C'mon, Gear!" Static shouted, leaning forward even more on his Disk so he would accelerate. Mentally urging Backpack - a large, round, spider-like device that looked more like a thin, high-tech backpack, and that he wore on his back, giving it its namesake - to make his rocket shoe/skates to go faster. Details began to arise as they drew closer.

It was indeed Phantom that was combating the creature made of meat. He was dressed as he had been before, but this time, he was moving from side to side in the sky, dodging blasts of brownish-red that came from the meat creature, and meat itself that the giant monster threw. His own hands were surrounded by a green glow, and every time his muscles in his arms visibly coiled and uncoiled, a blast of green - shaped like a glowing, nearly-transparent disk - would snap forth, and shoot towards the creature, usually making contact, sending newly-roasted meat to the city below.

What was more, was the large bird that flapped near the fight. It closely resembled the talking bird that had been with the boy from before(Danny? Zerex? Ezrel? The two teens still hadn't decided on what to call him), but its colors were different. Instead of being black with red markings, it was _white _with _blue_. It was much bigger, as well, being only about a foot or two shorter than Phantom. Its massive wingspan seemed to hardly work to keep the giant bird up. "C'mon, hit its head!" Shouted the bird, its voice surprisingly close to the voice of the bird that the two teens had met before.

"I'm TRYING!" Phantom responded, dodging another brownish blast. "I don't see _you _down here, dodging ectoplasm!" The boy added, a singe appearing on his hoodie as a small fraction of a beam grazed his side.

"Well, duh! Wings, Phantom! They don't work as well as being able to defy gravity!" The bird cried, and squawked as a stray slab of ham smacked it on the back of the head. "See! Can't dodge!"

"Crybaby!" Phantom yelped as a beam nearly decided to give him a _very _painful kiss, and grunted as it decided to give him an even more painful hug instead. "Oi, Lunch Lady! Can you please just be a sweetheart and jump into the Thermos? I'm not really in the mood to fight right now!" Phantom called up to the head of the beast.

"That thing's a _lady?"_ Virgil whispered, his eyes going wide with hardly-suppressed shock.

"I knew I was going to be blamed for blowing up a street when it was only a crater." Phantom muttered sideways to the bird. The bird in turn shook its head sadly.

"Only you, Ezrel, only you." He muttered, the name not going unnoticed by the recording that Backpack was taking of the scene.

"FOOLISH CHILD!" The monster roared, making the air rumble with the shout. "I WILL NOT BOW TO YOUR WISHES!" The booming voice suddenly morphed into that of a kind, elderly woman. "Prime rib, or Steak?" Phantom smirked, his fangs gleaming.

"Lettuce." He deadpanned. The face of the monster, which had softened at the strange question, suddenly contorted with rage.

"THERE IS NO MEAT HERE! DINE ON MY FURY!" The creature roared, and began to shoot volley after volley of meat at the boy, who swirled around the attacks, laughing loudly.

"You need to get some fighting tips! Who've you been asking for advice? The Box Ghost? Oh…Box Lunch…duh…" Phantom smacked himself in the forehead, and then proceeded to be smacked in the forehead by a raw chicken.

"Box Ghost? Box Ghost? BEWARE! FOR I AM THE BOX-" A voice from the sidelines began, but Phantom shot a blast of green energy without even looking, knocking something from the sky.

"Nobody can come to answer your call right now, so please try back later!" Phantom called, before back-flipping to dodge an entire _cow_. "Stop throwing cows! You're gonna scare the crap out of some kid and scar them for life!"

"HOW?" The monster yelled.

"Well, wouldn't you be freaked if a dead cow randomly fell from the sky and almost crushed you? Pretty scaring!" Phantom yelled back.

"ENOUGH CHATTER!" The monster roared.

"I agree!" Phantom snapped, and spun around to dodge another attack. As he spun, the green glow in his right hand elongated into what looked like the rough shape of a katana, the 'blade' being three feet long. Swinging his arm diagonally through the air, the sword sliced through the oncoming fist of the monster. A roar screamed from the monster's mouth, echoing in the dead-calm air of the night. "Do me a favor and say hi to Technus!" The white-haired boy cried, whipping out the thermos-like device from a pocket, and hit a button on the side over the canister. The whirlwind of blue and white shot from the opening, encircling the monster of meat. A glow surrounded the creature's body, and, one by one, the meat fell, revealing an old lady with glowing green skin, dressed like the stereotypical lunch lady. She screeched as he body elongated and thinned, half of her body turning sideways as her feet were dragged into the Thermos.

"You'll die for this, Phantom!" The woman screeched, forcing her body from her chin up to stay outside of the Thermos. Phantom deftly slammed the lid onto her head, locking her inside.

"Have fun with that one, Lady." Phantom said, pocketing the device. The bird flew closer to Phantom, its massive wings making the air around it vibrate.

"That took to long! You should have taken her out faster! You're out of shape, aren't you!" The bird accused.

"First off…WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THAT I HAD TO ACTUALLY FIGHT A GHOST THAT KNEW MY ABILITIES?" Phantom yelled, waving his arms in the air. "And second…you shouldn't be talking! You never help me in a fight. And third…I was having fun dodging flying meat." Phantom muttered the last, looking off to the side with a slight scowl. Gear couldn't take it anymore. He shot forward to meet the two.

"Why does everyone have a giant talking bird but me?" Gear yelled. Phantom and the bird jumped in shock, their eyes going wide.

"WHAT BIRD?" They cried in unison. Phantom and the large creature exchanged looks, before the bird tried to hide behind Phantom, giving him the appearance of having his own wings. Static floated over, his face blank.

"Nice undercover work, Gear." He deadpanned. "But he has a point. We met a boy with a bird that looked exactly liked that, and talked, to. Its colors were inverse, though." Static said. Phantom glanced nervously to where the bird had just been next to him, only to remember the creature had moved away, trying to get out of sight.

"Um…coincidence?" He offered. "And I should be asking _you_ why you guys were spying on my fight, and why you're out here so late at night!" Phantom seemed to think hard for a split second. "On a school night!" Now it was Static and Gear's turn to look around nervously.

"Um…well…you see…wait a flippin' minute…this is our town! We have to protect it! Why're _you_ out fighting!" Static shot back.

"'Cause I'm the only one in this town that knows how to fight a ghost the right way!"

"Well, we could figure it out! Right, Gear?"

"Eh, no, not really."

"Thanks a lot, Gear."

"You're welcome."

"See? Your friend agrees with me!"

"Not really, Phantom. I don't agree with either of you. I'm choosing to stay out of this." Gear backed up in the air slightly, letting Static and Phantom glare daggers at each other.

"…I don't trust you…" Static said flat-out.

"Good. The feelings mutual then." Phantom retorted with equal venom.

"For all we know, you could be malevolent."

"Ooo! Lookie here, everyone! Static knows a big word!" Phantom said with mock excitement on his face. "Like I care. I've been through trying to convince people that I'm good for months. Either they believe it, or they suck it up and deal with it, 'cause nobody can kill me." Phantom's eyes narrowed and glowed in all their multi-color glory. "You can protect this city from any Bang Baby, but my job is to take out the evil ghosts. Get in the way of that, and I _wont _distinguish you between friend or foe. I have a job to do, and I wont let some immature kid get in my way. You don't trust me 'cause you know close to nothing about me. I don't trust you because of my own special reasons that you will never know." Phantom bared his fangs in anger, and growled. "That's the thing I've had to learn about humans the hard way. Humans can _never _be trusted. _Especially _the ones that hold supernatural powers."

* * *

Well, I guess that's a good length for a first chapter. Please tell me if it's good or not! This is the first chapter of my first story, so I'm sorry if it kinda sucked. If it's bad, I'll try my hardest to get it to be better. Sorry if a lot of this seems dramatic or random, but it'll all lead up to something throughout this story. I'd like to PUBLICLY thank my twin sister, Kitsune-242, for setting aside her own stories to help me get this one off the ground!

**Kitsune-242: This is Kitsune-242, stealing my sister's laptop. If any of you read my stories "Vulpes Alveus" or "Demon's Shadow", I'd like to tell you I'm NOT dead, and I'll be getting back to my own stories as SOON as my sister's story is officially underway(so in about five chapters or so). I hope you all understand!**

Yeah, so please tell me what you think! I'd like to know if there's anything I can approve on, or ANYTHING that I'm doing right.

_~Ookami-242_


	2. Tension

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Static Shock, or anything else. Well…I'm back. I'd like to personally thank Alliee for being the FIRST person to review Destroyed Hero. Small comments like 'Please update' really go a long way to boost my confidence! Thanks Alliee! (I'll try to respond to any and all reviews that I have an answer to at the end of each chapter.)

Recap of the first chapter! Two people showed up in Dakota; one a boy with a talking bird, the other a 'ghost' boy, also with a talking bird. The ghost boy and Static got along instantly, right? Wrong! Tension's between the two, and they don't trust each other. Static and Gear don't know what to think of the ghost boy, not knowing if he's a good guy or bad guy, or if they should believe if he's a Bang Baby or not.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Tension**

_**:::Dakota, Early Morning:::**_

Virgil had been scowling all throughout the day, his face set in a firm glare at nothing. He walked with his shoulders raised, and his eyebrows scrunched up, his eyes narrowed dangerously. Not even the most notorious bullies would look to long in his direction. The source of the young African-American's frustration?

A certain hovering white-haired boy might do it.

"C'mon, V! So you don't trust you-know-who. Doesn't mean you should let it affect your 'Virgil life'. Keep that in Static's." Richie whispered during passing period.

"I know, Rich, but while we're stuck in here, that guy's out there, and could be…I dunno, blowin' up a daycare or a retirement home…or kicking a puppy!" An insane light began to filter through the dark onyx eyes of a certain Virgil Hawkins. Richie stared, his face comically blank.

"Virg, I don't think someone like Phantom would waste his time going around kicking puppies. Or blowing up daycares and retirement homes."

"You're right! Someone like that would go right for the Mayor, or the President, or-"

"If you say God, I'm leaving." Richie pointed over her shoulder where his class resided. Virgil closed his mouth with a quiet, hollow 'pop'. "Virgil, it's _fine_. I trust that guy. I mean, he _was _fighting that techno-guy, and that meat-lady."

"What if they were the good guys? Then what would you do?" Virgil accused.

"Eat a TV whole." Richie responded. "Look at what those guys were doing. I doubt they were good. You're blowing this out of proportion, V. Phantom's a good guy who's just misunderstood. You should know about that, right, Static?" Richie whispered the last as a group of giggling girls passed them by. Virgil's scowl softened as all the times he had been shot at by the police before he had made it apparent that he was trying to _help _the people of Dakota, not harm them, like the res of the Bang Babies were.

"He may be misunderstood, but I still don't trust that guy." Virgil responded, and turned to head to class before the bell could ring. He threw out one last attempt to change Richie's mind. "I bet he doesn't even make his bed in the morning!"

"Neither do you, Virgil."

_**:::Condemned Building:::**_

The un-ending sound of nails against flesh filled the condemned building in the run-down slums of Dakota. The source? The white-haired ghost boy who sat in the dark, dusty but otherwise empty room, that's who. The left sleeve of his hoodie was pulled up to his forearm, and his right hand was madly scratching away at the black tattoo that was burned into his tan skin. His eyes were narrowed, his glowing irises shedding a very small amount of light on the object of his current obsession. His skin was around the tattoo was red and raw, a few droplets of glowing green blood even beginning to seep through the small bit of skin that still separated his fingers from his veins. A black and red bird with two ribbon-like tails poked its head out of the darkness; the bird itself had to be at least half the size of the boy, if not a little taller. "It's not going to come off, you know, no matter how much soap you use, no matter how hard you scratch. I thought you figured this out already." The bird said, the words tumbling from its glistening beak. The boy growled as he attempted to throw his arm from his sight. It didn't work to well.

"I'm aware of that, Pallian!" The boy snapped. "But that doesn't mean I can't try! I mean, it's my obsession, and all ghosts need an obsession!"

"But _you're _not a ghost, even if your chosen name is Danny Phantom. You know as well as I, and half of the state of Illinois, that you do not need an obsession to keep yourself rooted to the Earth." The bird said, shuffling its large wings.

"I don't care! If one obsession is taken from me, then I just need to find a new one. Getting rid of _this_," Phantom waved his arm around to emphasize his point "is going to be my new one!"

"You're still pursuing your 'past obsession', though, Ezrel." The bird pointed out. "And it still confuses people." Phantom scowled as he stared into a dark corner of the small, dusty room.

"I wish you would stop calling me Ezrel, Pallian. I don't care if it's what the Elders have chosen to name me. I'm not theirs to name." Phantom paused. "Besides. It's pretty confusing. What should people call me? Danny? Phantom? Danny Phantom? Ezrel?"

"Danny Zerex?" Pallian added, raising what could have been an eyebrow; it was just a simple red streak over his left, silvery eye.

"You get my point. I'd rather just be called Phantom and get it all over with." Phantom muttered. The bird held back a snort of laughter.

"Then why don't you just kill yourself and_ really _get it all over with?" Phantom glared, his dual-colored eyes seeming to look both through Pallian, and into his very being at the very same time. "I was _kidding!_ God, and you say_ I _have no sense of humor!"

"That wasn't humor, that was just plain insulting." Phantom said, turning his head away stubbornly. "And I'm pretty sure you were insinuating something."

"Hi, I'm Danny Phantom. My obsession is dry sarcasm." Pallian grumbled, turning away. A shoe flew from behind him, and smacked him in the back of the head. "Ow! And my other obsession is having no sense of humor otherwise!" Another shoe cracked him right between the wings. "OW! QUIT IT! GOD! YOU'RE AS HUMOROUS AS BATMAN!"

_**:::A Few Hours Later:::**_

Virgil and Richie walked side-by-side down the street, speaking about past and possible-future events, and laughing at the funny - or just plain pathetic - ones. School had passed by rather uneventfully; not one Bang Baby disturbance, so there had been no escaping Science class to use the 'bathroom'. The day had been one complete pile of peace. "C'mon, Pallian! Lift with your knees!" _CRASH! _"…you didn't lift with your knees, that was your ankles."

"So? The makeup of a human body is so stupid and complicated! AND YOUR 'KNEES' ARE BACKWARDS!"

"Not to us they aren't!"

Okay, so the peace was officially over. Richie paused at the screaming as they were about to pass the junkyard. "Uh…isn't Pallian the name of that one bird that the kid had at the Community Center?" The blonde asked.

"Eh, I dunno. But the thing about knees being backwards caught my attention. Let's check it out." Virgil responded, leading his best friend into the junkyard. Right near the entrance, the black-haired boy from the Community Center was crouched on one side of a dirt-covered couch, with a black haired, silver-eyed boy with blood-red eyebrows jumping around in a circle, holding his toes of his left foot. He was dressed in a plain pair of jeans and a black t-shirt…which didn't do much to help the black and red wings that were folded to his back. The black-haired boy, who was still crouching, was busy laughing his head off as the winged boy continued to hop, clutching his foot while singing an array of cusswords.

"You think it's funny, Ezrel! Go ahead and drop the couch on your own foot!" The winged boy yelled. "Stupid fragile human toes…!"

"Nah! I've dropped enough things on my foot ever since the portal accident, thank you very much." The other responded, before frowning in the direction that Virgil and Richie were crouched in hiding. "I can hear you, you know." He said oh-so casually. Virgil, being the smart boy that he was, jumped up.

"How'd you hear us?"

"You were breathing, weren't you?" The boy asked, raising an eyebrow. "Now, if you'll excuse me…Pallian, get your winged ass over here and help me move this couch!"

"Um…why exactly are you movin' a couch?" Richie asked.

"Well, I want a place to sit in my room, and the bed's kinda…well, I don't have one yet." The boy responded, pressing the palms of his hands underneath the right armrest of the couch. "Couch first, bed second."

"There's absolutely _no _logic in that." Richie pointed out. The boy with multiple identities blinked once.

"Maybe not to you, but I prefer couches. They can be used for a number of things; many more than a bed can. It might also be the fact that I have _no _idea where to find a flipping bed in this place that's _not _being slept on by a guard dog. And if need to question the 'logic' of something, how about you start with why someone would have a guard dog in a place full of trash anyway."

"For this exact reason. So somebody wouldn't come in and just take this stuff." Richie responded almost immediately.

"Well than answer this. If something is here, then it means it's the last stop. That nobody else wanted it. So then why should it matter? This stuff could easily be used by the homeless, or be sent to places where people are less than fortunate, instead of rotting away uselessly in some dump. For instance…" The boy tapped the couch. "…I could use this couch. And some other homeless man could use this." The boy lifted a pillow wrapped in a ratty blanket from a pile of trash. "People say that they're recycling their stuff by sending it to a place where it would decay harmlessly. But the _real _way to recycle something like a couch or a pillow or a blanket would be to give it to the homeless. God knows that we could use it."

"You seem to have put a lot of thought into something like that." Richie muttered. The boy smirked.

"Nah, not really. I just have a very open view of the world now."

"Is that why you're friends with a talking bird and a boy with wings?" Virgil questioned, lifting a single eyebrow. The boy looked between the two friends, and the winged boy, blinking innocently with slight confusion.

"You mean…you didn't figure it out? I thought the only reason you guys weren't asking _why _he had wings was because you already knew." The boy shrugged. "Well I guess not…"

"Know what?" Richie asked.

"That this boy here and the bird are the same person. Pallian is…a special bird, I guess you could say. He can alter his appearance and size quite easily. His easiest morph is just between bird and human, and he rarely changes his color, but he does. I needed a little extra help lifting this couch, so I pestered him into morphing." The boy explained, ignoring Pallian's poorly-covered-by-a-cough mutter of 'bastard'.

"Uh…so…why, exactly, an…Pallian…do this stuff?" Virgil asked. The boy stared blankly at the two boys, then said rather blankly:

"The dude's smokin' meth."

"The hell, Ezrel?" Pallian yelled.

"Well, what else am I gonna say? You're a giant talking bird that can morph! How do I even _explain _that?"

"Well, I dunno! Think of something!"

"Why don't you?"

"'Cause I'm pretty sure people want something told to them by a human when they _are _human, instead of some morphing talking giant BIRD!" Virgil and Richie glanced at each other with uncertain looks. On one hand, it was fun to watch a human and a human-bird screaming at one another. On the other hand, the yelling might attract others, and the last thing they needed was for people to start asking questions. On _that _hand, was the possibility of being fried if they tried to stop the two; who knew what other powers that bird had under its wings?

"Ugh! You know what? Carry your stupid couch back yourself! I don't need a couch anyway! I can just go into the form of a bird and sit there!" Pallian barked. His form shimmered, and melted into that of a bird, leaving the bird that the boy had had a while before standing in the humanoid's place. With a flurry of feathered wings, Pallian's form was vanishing into the sky.

"That stupid _bird._" The boy muttered, and began to ram his shoulder into the side of the couch, forcing the giant thing to scoot about three feet each time towards the entrance. He muttered to himself as he did so, occasionally wincing when his shoulder let out a loud crack. "You're the one that was complaining about sitting on the floor…I was perfectly fine on the ground, thank you very much…" The boy grumbled.

"Where are you even staying?" Richie asked. The boy turned a suspicious eye on the glasses-wearing blonde.

"You won't tell anyone?" He asked. "Not even if you think it's for my own good or whatever?"

"Promise." Richie said, holding up his hand to emphasize his vow.

"You know that abandoned building in the slums?" The boy pointed towards the south, where the slums were just a few city blocks away. "The place where homeless kids go to band together and whatnot? There. They had an extra room, and agreed to let me stay if I pulled my weight. I assured them that I could get my own food and clothes and stuff; all I needed was a dry place to crash now and then. I don't sleep to often anymore." He paused. "They don't really bother me, except for the really young ones who wont stop clinging to my leg whenever they spot me. I guess it's because the older ones don't really know what to call me, since I never gave them a straight answer…"

"That's another thing. It's kinda been bothering us…what do you want _us _to call you?" Virgil asked. "I mean…in case we ever see you again."

"Danny, if you want. Pallian calls be Ezrel…cause of reasons that I shouldn't really be telling you, or any government agent." He paused. "Or my friends. _Especially _not my friends. They'd kinda have a panic attack and probably start fussing over me as they always did after a fight."

"Did you get into fights back at home? Is that why you ran away?" Richie questioned.

"This is starting to sound like when we first me, you know. No, that's not why I ran away. To much stress started to come up. I left. Simple as that. The fights were something that were secret and off to the side. My parent's were to engrossed in their work to notice when I'd come home with a cracked rib or broken leg." Danny called as he was twisting the legs off from the bottom of the couch, and shoving the short wooden stubs into a large backpack he was carrying.

"They didn't notice when you had broken _bones?"_ Richie asked with wonder. "How'd you every hide it?"

"I heal faster than…well, anyone, really. Unless you meet someone who can heal injuries in a split second, I'm probably one of the fastest healers on the planet. Or, at least, in the USA." Danny said as he was tying the cushions to the couch.

"Uh…what're you doing?" Virgil asked, pointing.

"Carrying the couch home, like Pallian said I should." Danny answered.

"How do you expect to be able to-HOLY CRAP!" Richie suddenly squeaked as Danny hefted the entire couch onto his shoulder with nothing but a grunt. Danny raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at them.

"And you're surprised why? You live in a city filled with Bang Babies…and you guys come from a place that _actually knows _who _Superman_ is, while I, on the other hand, just learned about the guy when I came here. Strength like this shouldn't be something new to you." Danny walked towards a side exit of the dump. "Oh, and you'll be keeping this super strength thing a secret, considering I have something to hold over your heads…don't I, Static, Gear?" Danny smirked as he smoothly strolled out of the large garbage dump. "Later!" He called, leaving Virgil and Richie to pick up their jaws from the ground.

_**:::Hawkins Household:::**_

"We're dead, Rich! DEAD!" Virgil groaned once more as he paced in the room. "The guy knows our secret, and we just figured out his _name!_ If he goes blabbing to the press, what're we gonna have to combat that? 'He's got a freakish talking bird'? I don't think that'll top the fact that we're Bang Babies!" Richie looked up from the comic book he was reading, not a hint of worry etched into his features.

"Virg, calm down. You're forgetting something important. He said that he has that hanging over our heads if we go and tell people that he's got larger-than-average strength. As long as we don't tell anyone that he can bench-press a _couch_, I don't think he'll bother us with the secret. If he has that over our head, then he _knows _that we have his super strength over _his _head." Richie said. "Plus, that'd pull to much attention to him, and I have the feeling he's the type of guy who _really _hates attention."

"First we have Phantom, now we have the possibility of being exposed? How come the superheroes in the comic books never have problems like this?"

"They do, V." Richie deadpanned. "Seriously, when was the last time you picked up a comic? Or, you know, stepped outside? Superheroes are the most popular thing today!" The blonde hero threw the comic he had been reading at Virgil. "And I thought you were all wrapped up in 'the mystery that is Phantom'." He waved his hands slowly and dramatically through he air with his swaying words.

"That's right! I was!" Virgil said, his eyes brightening as the thought of being exposed was apparently completely wiped from his mind. "…uh…how are we gonna go about this?" Richie groaned as Virgil began to pace seriously once more; that boy was _seriously _going to carve a moat around his bed if he kept pacing like that…

_**:::Outskirts of Dakota:::**_

"Why…" _CRACK!_ "…you…" _SLAM!_ "…stay…" _THWAK! _"…DOWN!"Yet another punch was landed on the giant black and purple ghost dragon, but every time its spines met the ground, its rage increased, as did its energy. Phantom, on the other hand, was starting to tire…and get _very _annoyed. Phantom propelled his right leg into a powerful kick, the toe of his white boot digging into the lower jaw of the ghost. Said ghost collapsed with a roar, its body falling in what could be called a wave; tail first, head last. "Stupid green-blooded dragon…" Phantom growled.

"You would know all about green blood, would you not, Phantom?" The dragon growled as it maneuvered himself so he could lift his body to his legs. "You would know all about _all _of that."

"True…" Phantom smirked. "But I'm not stupid." The dragon roared, and blew a torrent of fire in Phantom's direction. The white-haired ghost boy just flipped out of the way, twirling in mid air so his body would not be consumed by the flames. "I mean, come _on_, Aragon! You'd think that you'd be smart enough to notice some important stuff in this fight with that nose of yours, and your ears, but you've noticed _nothing_." Aragon snarled after slashing his claws at Phantom, only for the boy to turn intangible at the last second, the curved claws sliding right through his form, as if he wasn't even there.

"Oh? And what have I not noticed?" Aragon asked. "Your stupid bird friend is behind you!" Phantom looked over his shoulder, where the white-and-blue bird flapped his large wings to hover.

"True…" Phantom looked back to Aragon with his multi-colored eyes. "…there's me, and there's Pallian…so who on _earth _could be behind you, when there's only two of us? Is the answer A) Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, B) Your sister Dora, or C?" Phantom asked. Right as he paused in his little speech, a green blast of ectoplasm smashed into the back of Aragon's head, right between his horns. Aragon, roaring in pain and surprise, fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. A second Phantom turned visible, hovering where Aragon's head had been seconds before.

"None of the above!" The second Phantom said, before flying back to the original Phantom, and merging with him.

"Since when'd you master _that?"_ The bird asked with raised 'eyebrows'. Phantom grinned.

"Not mastered. That was pure luck." He answered. The bird seemed to pale, if that was even possible.

"Phantom, turn around!" The creature cried, right before a large paw swatted Phantom right out of the air. The boy's body careened at high speeds towards the ground, until finally, the earth broke his fall. "How do you expect to beat _them _when you can't even beat this buffoon?" The bird sighed.

"Maybe you'd like to shut up and _help…_" Phantom growled as he turned intangible to attempt a sneak attack. Sadly, his plan was ruined. Not because of him, and surprisingly not because of Pallian…but because of two certain superhero.

"Take this you over-grown lizard!" Gear shouted as he threw a Zap Cap, pre-charged courtesy of Static. The electro-powered hero, on the other hand, was flying circles around Aragon's head, trying to zap him in the eye; surprisingly small targets, his eyes were. Phantom's jaw dropped, his chin phasing right through the worm that was wriggling its way through the dirt, ten feet below the earth's surface.

_What're they doing? If they couldn't beat Technus, they wouldn't be able to take on Aragon!_ Phantom thought. A chuckle was nearly brought to his lips when Gear yelped in victory when Aragon took a step back in apparent response to the Zap Caps that were being thrown, when in reality, all Aragon was doing was trying to avoid the small balls of flame that Pallian was managing to spit without being seen from the trees that he hid within. Even though he was a ghost dragon, unless the fire was his own, Aragon would rather not come near any type of flame. Phantom managed to smother the chuckle, though, at a single thought. _The idiots are going to get themselves killed._ He thought, before spurring himself out of the ground, forcing his body to become invisible and intangible at the same time. Right before Phantom would slide through Aragon's temple, he became very-much visible and tangible, and rammed his right shoulder into Aragon's left temple and left eye, receiving a loud roar of pain as Aragon tried to bring and arm up to cover his new injury, just to find that his arms were to short, and his neck was to long.

"Are you two glory-hounds or just mental? Get the hell out of here!" Phantom yelled, slashing a hand through the air. He turned the slash into a thin slice of ectoplasm that he sent at the stumbling Aragon, letting the 'blade' of green energy slash into Aragon's left shoulder, greenish blood pouring from the newly-opened wound. "Aragon is to advanced for such amateurs!"

"Amateurs? I'll have you know that we've been fighting Bang Babies longer than you've been fighting your own whacko guys!" Static yelled in reply. Phantom glared, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"I've been fighting _ghosts_ for nearly half a year before your stupid 'Big Bang' even happened! And even if you _had _been fighting longer…ghosts and Bang Babies are two entire different thi-" Phantom never got to finish, because Aragon had suddenly wrapped his body in a clawed fist.

"You little peasant!" Aragon ruled. "You've meddled with my life for the last time! First you take my kingdom from me and turn it over to my sister, than you destroy my attempts at taking that human city as my new kingdom! You shall pay with your life!" Aragon inhaled deeply then released a blazing bath of flames, each and every flicker heading towards Phantom. The ghost boy's eyes flashed once more, but this time a brilliant icy blue. He took in a deep breath, just as Aragon had, and then blew out, a white mist circling its way from between his lips. The two forces crashed into one another, blazing heat against cooling chill. The polar opposites wrestled with one another, fire trying to melt ice, and ice trying to envelope fire. The winner would be decided by careful- _ZAP! _The sudden electric current that Static had released surprised Phantom, causing him to lose his grip on his cryokinesis. With a sputter, Phantom's mouth closed, his teeth clamping down on his tongue awkwardly. Aragon, however, managed to keep up his stream of fire, and, without the ice there to quench its thirst to destroy, the fire rushed forward.

All Phantom could do was try to pull up a shield without the use of his hands; it didn't work to well. Only part of a very weak shield was brought up before the supernatural flames reached him. With a scream, Phantom buried his face in his arm, trying to shield his eyes from the intense heat, praying that his shield would hold up. His prayers were for naught, though. First there were just hairline cracks. Then they widened until most of the shield was covered in thick cracks. Then, with the sound of breaking glass, the shield shattered, allowing the flames to rip at Phantom's exposed body and clothes. _Shit shit shit shit SHIT! _Phantom yelled in his thoughts, before doing something he didn't thing he'd have to do. Wiggling until his face was underneath the cover of Aragon's curled fingers, Phantom clamped his mouth shut, and began to gather heat in his stomach, feeling the power there build in response to his mental orders.

From outside, it looked like Phantom's body was collapsing in the heat. A grin of victory stretched across Aragon's maw, but it soon vanished as a silver glow began to make its way through his fingers. The silver glow gathered until it was burning red in the intensity. With a sudden yelp, Aragon cut off his flame attack, and uncurled his fingers. Two fires canceled each other out, and Phantom dropped to the ground, his clothes smoking and burnt completely through in some places - the hood of his hoodie would never be recognizable again - while Aragon shook his hand that he had used to hold Phantom, his scales melted together, with silver smoke rising from the now-melted scales.

"What did you do?" Aragon asked in a low voice. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"You said it yourself before the two Screw-Ups showed up." Phantom said, wincing as he spoke in his now-raspy voice, his throat raw and burning as he talked. "Why don't you talk it over with Lunch Lady and Technus?" Phantom whipped out the Thermos, which was finally charged after he had tried to use it at the start of the fight, and hit the trigger. The ever-familiar whirlwind of power sucked Aragon into the Thermos before he could protest. Phantom sighed in relief, looking down at his hands, which were covered in burns that would either take _forever _to heal, or would leave lasting scars. In a split second, anger flooded into him. With a flash, Phantom was in front of Static, their noses being only inches apart.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?" Phantom roared at the top of his lungs, which was actually quite loud, the permanent echo in his voice just adding to the volume. Static winced, but didn't falter in getting a glare of his own.

"Helping. And protecting the town, unlike _some _people." Gear took a few 'steps' back from where he was hovering next to Static, whistling to himself in a 'I'm not hear' fashion.

"I _WAS_ PROTECTING THE TOWN! AND DOING A DAMN GOOD JOB OF IT TO, UNTIL _YOU_ BUTT IN!" Phantom held up his right arm, his tan skin covered in red and black burns. Gear winced at the sight and smell, but anger was fueling Static now; he would pay not attention to how gruesome the sight, and smell, actually was. "BURNS TAKE FOREVER TO HEAL, ESPECIALLY ONES MADE BY GHOST DRAGONS!"

"It looked more like you were just fighting another thing like you, not protecting the town." Static said firmly.

"Oh my freaking _GOD!"_ Phantom yelled, throwing his aching arms in the air. "You're like Valerie! You know what your problem is? You can't accept the fact that outsiders might just want to protect your town! You don't think that someone would want to protect people without a reason! Well, here's a little bit of info for you, SPARKY! All ghosts need an obsession to stay rooted to the earth. You know what my obsession is? PROTECTING PEOPLE, BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO NOT BE PROTECTED! IT'S BASICALLY WHY I DIED, HOT-SHOT!" Phantom was practically blowing steam from his ears now. "The point isn't who's protecting what! My problem with you is that you don't know when to _back off_! You know that you know _nothing_ on how to fight ghosts, and you tried anyway! And look what happened because you were to stubborn to let an _expert_ handle what their _expertise _IS!"

Pallain was suddenly behind Phantom, clearing his throat. "Um…Phantom? Might I remind you what your kind is partially venerable to?" The massive bird muttered, trying to keep the beak movements down to a minimum. For a second, it appeared Phantom wasn't going to respond to his friend's quiet words, but slowly, his scowl fell, and his eyes turned to where his clothes were singed in some places. He hissed in annoyance, and turned abruptly in the air, as if he was turning around stiffly on the ground. He began to float away, his face set in a firm mixture of a glare and a grimace.

"Next time, stay out of it." Phantom growled. "I don't need the help of anyone. Not anymore…" Pallian looked back and forth between Static and Gear, and Phantom, before twisting his body so he was following after them.

"Uh…we could help you…with the burns, I mean." Gear said. Static turned a glare that could melt through steel on the clad-in-green hero, but Gear ignored the hostile look. Phantom turned to stare at the boy, the right side of his chin lightly brushing his shoulder.

"I don't need help in a fight, and I don't need help healing burns. I wouldn't trust you anywhere near me with something that's meant for treatment, but could be used for a weapon anyway." Phantom grumbled.

"Like a scalpel! Phantom's been really bad with scalpels and needles ever since-"

"That's enough! C'mon!" Phantom called. Pallian almost started to glare at Phantom's retreating form.

"Secret-keeping little fire-breather…" Pallian muttered. "This is why you don't have any friends!" Phantom snorted over his shoulder.

"Yeah. _That's _why I don't have any. Hurry up, or I'm locking you out!" Phantom called, and vanished.

"No fair! No teleporting!" Pallian took off, his wings working up and down smoothly to carry him away. Static and Gear slowly looked to one another.

"What the hell just _happened?"_ Static asked in his ever-observant way.

_**:::Condemned Building:::**_

"Well, we're officially on the road to making a superhero-hideout." Pallian said sarcastically, his black feathers nearly completely concealing him in the shadows. "We have a couch." Danny turned to glare at the bird that was half his size, before going back to bandaging the burns that stretched their way across his arms.

"Go ahead and keep being sarcastic, Pallian. When this place is _really _underway, I'll make you stay up here so you can say hi to all the crack-heads that come here to deal their drugs." Pallian stared blankly. "They'll be high, think you're a demon, and shoot you till you're dead."

"Oh…crap." The bird said rather blankly. "Uh…you need help with those?"

"How're you gonna help? With your talons? Uh, no thanks. That'll just hurt me even more." Pallian blinked slowly. "What?"

"You know, sometimes I begin to wonder why _your _kind is the one in charge."

"Who, the humans?"

"No."

"Well, ghosts aren't in charge of anything-"

"Not that one either. The other one." Danny opened his mouth to ask what Pallian meant, but then the answer hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Oh…right…_that _one." He grumbled, before ripping the white bandages that he was wrapping around his forearms. He threw the nearly-depleted roll at Pallian. "Put that in a safe place, would you? I'll have to go get some more later…" Pallian bent down, and picked up the cloth bandages in his beak. "You might want to get some sleep. First thing tomorrow, I'm heading out to the outskirts of Dakota. There's word of a escapee from DALV. At least, that's what I got out of Aragon before the guy started to freak out to much over what I did to burn his hand earlier…seriously, that guy knew already, so I don't know why he was so freaked-" Danny turned to Pallian, who looked like he was on the brink of falling asleep. "Oops. Right. Anyway, if there _is _an escapee, I might know him or her. If I do, that'll help my cause. If I don't…well, I need to capture it and find a place to release it that wont be destructive to cities or towns or whatever."

"So in other words, we're gonna go beat the crap out of an animal."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Fun."

_**:::The Next Day:::**_

Danny awoke to the bright light of the sun filtering through the rotting boards that covered the window in his 'room'. He groaned, and pulled the shredded blanket over his head, using his head and feet to lift his back from the couch cushions so he could turn over onto his other side. "I thought you said 'first thing'." Pallian's voice called from somewhere above Danny's head. The black-haired boy groaned again, covering his eyes with his hands. "Get up, lazy-feathers." Pallian called, before dive-bombing the couch and its occupant. Danny gagged as the sharp beak drove its way into his side; surprisingly, it didn't puncture his skin, but that didn't mean that it couldn't hurt like hell.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL, PALLIAN! I'M NOT MADE OF TITANIUM, YOU KNOW! THAT HURT!" Danny screeched, his hand on his side.

"Sure. That's why you're not bleeding. C'mon! I'm bored in this human town! I wanna go beat the crap out of an animal!" Pallian was practically jumping up and down. Danny stared forward blankly.

"I thought you didn't want to fight an animal."

"Nah, you just _thought _I didn't." Pallian responded with a grin. "You took my answer as sarcastic! It wasn't!" Danny stood up, throwing his blanket away from him.

"Sure. Whatever floats your boat, 'Lian." Danny muttered. Blue and white sparks gathered around his waist suddenly, and shot outwards, creating a bluish-white ring around his waist. This ring split in two, one traveling up, and one traveling down. Between the rings, Danny's body was taking on a different look; similar build, but different clothes and colors. When the rings hit the floor and passed over his head, the just vanished into thin air. Gone was Danny, and in his place, was Phantom. By the time the change was done, Pallian was jumping up and down, rather awkwardly, but the door.

"C'mon! I wanna see what the DALV people came up with this time!" Pallian said. Phantom blinked, but followed anyway.

"I think I'm gonna call Lulian. I think he mixed up my partner order." Pallian's jaw dropped, and his wings slumped. Phantom ignored the bird, and walked right past. (**A/N: I'm pretty much gonna be rushing a bit of this until I get to meetings and the war; running out of ideas, and I don't want the story to get boring!**)

_**:::Far From Dakota:::**_

Phantom landed lightly, his feet making a quiet 'tap' on the ground. He looked down to the device that was clipped around his wrist like a watch. A green screen with a grid stretched across the surface of the device, with three blinking dots on the screen; two were Phantom and Pallian, and the other was their target. "Pallian, over here. 300 meters that way." Phantom pointed north, Pallian's head following his finger. "We have to walk. I don't want to scare this thing away." Phantom paused. "Where are we anyway?"

"Doesn't your fancy human gadget tell you?" Pallian asked. "And here I thought all things made by humans were superior. At least, that's what a certain _entity _told me." Phantom glared half-heartedly.

"You told me that your nose is better than my human technology. Does your nose tell you where we are?" Phantom asked. Pallian paused, breathing deeptly through the slits in his beak that served as a nose.

"…no…"

"Exactly. So get out the locator-thingy and figure out where we are." Phantom waited as Pallian dug through the bag that hung from his side, until, finally, the bird pulled out a round, CD-sized device that lacked the hole in the middle. It was made of silver metal, and one entire side was covered by a black screen. Pallian jumped over to Phantom's side, and held up his head, handing the disk to Phantom.

The white-haired boy tapped a thin button that was on the side of the disk, and watched as the screen brightened - not by much, though - and showed a rotating visual of the earth. Phantom tapped yet another button on the thin edge of the disk, and watched as the earth stopped rotating, and showed a green blinking square over a small section in the United States. The screen zeroed in until the area outlined by the green square took up all of the screen. Another blinking square appeared in the middle of the screen, zooming in on a picture of Nebraska, with some bits of Iowa, South Dakota, and Colorado. Yet another blinking green square appeared, and zeroed in on an area that showed the tops of many green trees, and a few small rock formations. Phantom blinked.

"Well, we're still in Nebraska." He muttered. "In the middle. Quite a ways from Dakota, huh?" Phantom chuckled. "Near a city called Gotham…"

"Isn't that a place that we read about when we were researching all the things that you didn't hear about in Amity Park?" Pallian asked. Phantom shrugged.

"I dunno, I wasn't paying attention." Phantom mumbled. "With my luck, though, we'll run into Static and Gear…Gear's okay, but Static…"

"Pisses you off, I know." Pallian finished for the white-haired ghost, rolling his silver eyes. "Let's get the show on the road before everyone gets bored!" Phantom raised an eyebrow, but followed the bird as he marched into the dense trees.

The two were silent for much of the short trip, careful to avoid fallen leaves that would alert their target to their presence. 300 meters later, the two stood before the mouth of a large cave, most of the entrance hidden by vines.

"Well, _I'd _hide out here." Phantom muttered, and looked down to the tracker on his wrist. _And this is where the DALV thing is…must be inside…do I dare step inside to face untold dangers? _Phantom slid the device from his wrist, and slipped it into a pocket. _Damn straight I do._ The ghost boy slid through a parting in the vines so the plants wouldn't swing around, which would cause the light to play differently on the wall; such a movement could give away the fact they were there, if their scent didn't already. Phantom took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself, before doing something that others probably would _avoid _doing.

He screamed.

"AHHHHHH" He yelled into the darkness, before turning tail, and running as fast as he could out of the cave. Pallian screeched in surprise, and raced after his friend, flapping his large wings to help him pick up speed. The two broke through the vines, made it back to the trees, and slid out of sight of the mouth of the cave.

"What was that?" Pallian hissed. "Why'd you scream?"

"What's the smarter option? Go into a cave where you can't see everywhere, or bring whatever's inside _out_ where it might be blinded, and also where we have the upper hand?" Pallian blinked slowly.

"There were better ways to going about that, you know."

"Yes, but that was the fastest." Phantom was about to continue, but the loud crash of a clawed paw cut him off; the falling of the foot was so powerful, it sent a tremor up their bodies. Phantom slowly peaked around the tree he was taking shelter behind, and paled, his jaw dropping. As he stared at the massive creature, one thought came to mind. _…what in the hell have I gotten myself into…?_

* * *

I apologize if this chapter was, you know, totally crappy. I know where I want to _go_ with this story, but some places are totally blah. So there might be parts that are boring, or, who knows, maybe _I _just think they're boring.

I'd like to say that this story is completely about…well, a few things. One is a large war. With what, you'll have to find out(so no, it's not Danny Phantom vs. the entire Ghost Zone.). Another is Danny overcoming the certain thing that made him run away from Amity Park in the first place. The third is Danny and his relationship with his new allies(he'll get them later), and him being recognized as an entire hero. That might seem like the entire plot, but trust me when I say that's not even 1/10th of it.

Now to reply to the reviews that I got(thanks you guys!)

**Allie: **Thanks for being the first to review, and here was your chapter! Hope you liked it(sorry if it wasn't what you wanted!)

**KatKat 376:** Thanks! I hope I'll be able to answer all the questions you have with the story soon!

**Patient 1377291: **Thank you so much! And I know, my spelling isn't the best. Not exactly a strong point of mine!

Thanks for reviewing, you three! Just to let you know, I wont update this story until I have at _least _ten reviews…or if I like the chapter to much to wait for that. Thanks for reading!

_~Ookami-242_


End file.
